Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg was born December 18, 1947 in Cincinnati, and he is a director, filmmaker, and producer. He was a filmmaker even as a child, and moved several times during his childhood, spending part of it in Arizona. He first gained fame as one of Universal's youngest-ever TV directors at the end of the 1960s; a critically-acclaimed TV film, "Duel", opened the door to his filmmaking career. A collection of box-office hits has made him one of the most commercially viable directors in motion picture history.

Steven SpielbergSpielberg's films have explored our primal fears (example: 1975's Jaws) and expressed wonder at marvels of this world (example: Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET). Spielberg has not been afraid to adapt well-known books to the silver screen, as shown by the success of both The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun. Moviegoers around the world have been fascinated by the exploits of Indiana Jones, in films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark. He also has a vivid imagination, as shown by his movies "Hook", "Jurassic Park", and its sequel.

Steven Spielberg is also renowned for his historical movies. "Schindler's List", set in the Holocaust, starred Liam Neeson as a businessman who risks his own life to save Jews. That movie won Spielberg an Academy Award for Best Director. He went back to that time period in 1998, for "Saving Private Ryan", which earned him another Best Director Award. He founded Amblin Entertainment in 1982, which produced blockbusters such as Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

In 1994, he founded a studio called Dreamworks SKG with David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, which was bought by Paramount in 2005. In 2001, he finished the Stanley Kubrick film AI: Artificial Intelligence; later films included "Munich", "Flags of our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima". Along with his Academy Awards, Steven Spielberg has won many other honors during his career, such as the Irving G. Thalberg Award and an induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. He has been married twice, and has seven children.